Jack thought there were plenty of snowmen so he made a snowdog for the cause.
You can vote for us every day in January by texting 105335 to 73774 and by voting on facebook http://www.refresheverything.com/jp2school
Vote for JP2
JP2 is entered in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Project to win $50,000 for new gym windows IF we can make it into the top 10 by January 31. We had been floating at 17 for a week and a half when the school held an afterschool snowman party. The kids and parents made a slew of snowmen on school property to hold signs asking folks to vote for us via text. Fox 4 News came out and shot some footage of the kids which they aired that night and the next morning. We are currently up to #15!!!
Jack thought there were plenty of snowmen so he made a snowdog for the cause.
You can vote for us every day in January by texting 105335 to 73774 and by voting on facebook http://www.refresheverything.com/jp2school
Jack thought there were plenty of snowmen so he made a snowdog for the cause.
You can vote for us every day in January by texting 105335 to 73774 and by voting on facebook http://www.refresheverything.com/jp2school
Sledding
After making the snowmen - the kids got down to the real business of the day - SLEDDING!!!
Of course I thought for sure Wy was going to freak out on his first sled ride especially with it being solo - Silly mommy. Freaking out is for MOMS!
Of course I thought for sure Wy was going to freak out on his first sled ride especially with it being solo - Silly mommy. Freaking out is for MOMS!
Brothers
Me and my brother! My brother and me! We're just as happy as brothers can be!
We take turns with our new Penquin towel. Now we really can be penguins!
"Vese are MY brownies, Wyatt!" "NO! Vey are MYYYY brownies, Jackie!"
Holy Snowflake, Batman!
So Jack comes home from school super excited to show us what he can do. He begs for paper, markers and scissors and we gather up the supplies. He says "First - you fold ve paper into a hot dog" (See fig. 1) We fold the paper. "Ven" he says "You fold ve hot dog into a hamburger." (See fig. 2) We fold the paper again. "Ven you draw ve triangles on it and cut vem out." We draw and cut. (See fig. 3) "Now, you open your hamburger/hot dog and your have a snowflake!!!" (See fig. 4)
Jack's Bird Book
After building a bird feeder with his brother and Daddy, Jack is all about the birds that come to eat at our house. He asked his Dad about the different birds and they started looking them up on line. Jack wanted pictures of all the birds so he and John printed out pictures and put them into Jack's Bird Book. Jack says the funny part about his book is the last page which has a picture of a squirrel and not a bird. That silly squirrel is in the book because he comes to eat at the bird feeder too - and he is a greedy little fella.
(Of course the first page has a picture of Thomas - but that doesn't count as silly.)
If you send us pictures of birds, we will add them to Jack's bird book!
Christmas with the Andersons
I know these were in my shutterfly album, but I liked them so much that I wanted them here as well.
I need another hole in my house...
...like I need another hole in my head!
This one was created by one of the girls at bedtime a few months ago. It was an accident or rather it wasn't on purpose. She was laying with her rear up against the wall as she sort of kicked the wall repeatedly. (She did not kick a perfectly rectangular hole int he wall. John cut it out so it would be ready for patching when the time came.)
It wouldn't be very nice of me to tell you why this hole is here. I'll just say that life happens.
This one is my fault. I mentioned to John that we should fix the leak in the shower head. I thought this was just a matter of replacing a gasket or installing a new shower head. Oh how wrong I was: it was a matter of replacing pipes and fittings and I glazed over early on in the whole explanation. I do know that I flipped out when I got home to find this huge hole in the wall.
We have had a long time leak in our upstairs bathroom. John has tried solutions that do not involve holes in the house, but finally came to the conclusion that there was nothing for it but to cut a hole. Poor guy tried the smallest hole he thought he could work with and due to unseen bracing in the wall/ceiling he had to cut a second hole then there just wasn't enough room to work so he finally decided to just make it one huge hole...
This one was created by one of the girls at bedtime a few months ago. It was an accident or rather it wasn't on purpose. She was laying with her rear up against the wall as she sort of kicked the wall repeatedly. (She did not kick a perfectly rectangular hole int he wall. John cut it out so it would be ready for patching when the time came.)
It wouldn't be very nice of me to tell you why this hole is here. I'll just say that life happens.
This one is my fault. I mentioned to John that we should fix the leak in the shower head. I thought this was just a matter of replacing a gasket or installing a new shower head. Oh how wrong I was: it was a matter of replacing pipes and fittings and I glazed over early on in the whole explanation. I do know that I flipped out when I got home to find this huge hole in the wall.
We have had a long time leak in our upstairs bathroom. John has tried solutions that do not involve holes in the house, but finally came to the conclusion that there was nothing for it but to cut a hole. Poor guy tried the smallest hole he thought he could work with and due to unseen bracing in the wall/ceiling he had to cut a second hole then there just wasn't enough room to work so he finally decided to just make it one huge hole...
Day Care
Wy started his new day care program with Miss Carrie this week. John and I took him to meet her and the other kids when we interviewed her. I took Wy again when I dropped off our contract. Every day I casually mentioned that he would be starting on Tuesday and how many days away that was. He only ever made a frown at me until Tuesday morning. When I told him "Today you go to Miss Carrie's" he had a melt down. After some snuggling and talking he calmed down and I couldn't believe it when there was no crying when I dropped him off. Great job Wy! He isn't thrilled with the new day care arrangements, but he does say Miss Carrie is nice - so I think we are going to be fine. (Besides - one of the mom's John talked to said that most days she has to bribe her daughter to get her to LEAVE Miss Carrie's house at pick up time and another mom said her son still invites her to his birthday parties etc. even though he is in 2nd grade now.)
Can we build stuff?
Sue & Steve gave the boys kid sized tools and two wood project for Christmas. The boys have been dying to put together the bug box and bird feeder. Every time I turned around, Wyatt was pulling hammers, screwdrivers, goggles and "tape wedgers" out of their tool box calling out "Can we build stuff? Can we?!!!"John finally had some time (and the patient energy required) to sit down with both of them and put together both projects this weekend.
Dive! Dive! Dive!
The boys are still singing and humming Christmas songs all day long. One of their favorites is Burl Ives' version of Holly Jolly Christmas. Wy sings: "Ho! Ho! The mister-toe! Hung where you can see! Somebody waits I know! KISS HER ONCE FOR ME-(followed by two kissing sounds.)" They also love Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Jack loves Up on the House-top. He and I have an ongoing argument about the lyrics in that song: he sings "First comes a stocking for little well. Oh dear Santa fill it well." I keep telling him the stocking is for little Nell but he blatantly ignores me. People keep telling me that this is what parenthood is about - being frequently and intentionally ignored.
John was on the receiving end of a hot wheels looped track type thing at the shop's holiday gift exchange. A shop full of fellas and not one of them could figure out how to get the car to make it the whole way around the vertical loop. John brought this thing home to the kids and he swears they only had it 3 minutes when he heard Jack yell "WYATT! Look what this can do!" I have requested that John inform the fellas in the shop they were outsmarted by our 5 year old in a matter of minutes.
The boys have been fighting off some sinus troubles the last few weeks. Whenever Wy sneezes, great big globs of ooey-gooey green stuff streak down his face. He starts yelling "SNOT! SNOT! SNOT!" It sounds like he is the captain of a submarine yelling orders to the crew "DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!"
Jack has not had school the last two days due to all this beautiful snow. Monday morning he came in and asked if he could cuddle me up for a little bit. I'm always up for a good cuddle so I just lifted the blanket for him to crawl into bed with me. We did have a lovely cuddle up until Daddy got up and moving around. Jack whispered in my ear "Can I go downstairs wiff Daddy?" "Sure" I said. He hopped up and scampered out of the room. He quickly came back, touched my cheek and said "I still love you, you know." He was so gentle when he told me that I knew he didn't want me to think he didn't love me. He just wanted to go play.
We were at dinner the other night and Wyatt kept making himself burp and then say "Paw-gize". I finally started counting him for it. He earned himself a time out and howled and cried when I carried him upstairs because he refused to head up on his own. I set him down in his room and turned to leave when he made a loud "UH!" I continued out of the room and he made a louder "UH!" I started heading down the stairs and he made another very loud "UH!" followed by "I am frowing fits! UUHH!"
Wy is now obsessed with crawling up on the kitchen counters. I caught him up there messing with the pens the other morning, giggling hysterically.
And here they are enjoying an ice cream treat. Wy insisted that his face was "NOT DIRTY!" I had to take a picture to prove otherwise. (One half second after I took this picture, Wy took a swipe at Jack's ice cream with his tongue. Jack was pretty fast though and Wy only managed to lick air!)
John was on the receiving end of a hot wheels looped track type thing at the shop's holiday gift exchange. A shop full of fellas and not one of them could figure out how to get the car to make it the whole way around the vertical loop. John brought this thing home to the kids and he swears they only had it 3 minutes when he heard Jack yell "WYATT! Look what this can do!" I have requested that John inform the fellas in the shop they were outsmarted by our 5 year old in a matter of minutes.
The boys have been fighting off some sinus troubles the last few weeks. Whenever Wy sneezes, great big globs of ooey-gooey green stuff streak down his face. He starts yelling "SNOT! SNOT! SNOT!" It sounds like he is the captain of a submarine yelling orders to the crew "DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!"
Jack has not had school the last two days due to all this beautiful snow. Monday morning he came in and asked if he could cuddle me up for a little bit. I'm always up for a good cuddle so I just lifted the blanket for him to crawl into bed with me. We did have a lovely cuddle up until Daddy got up and moving around. Jack whispered in my ear "Can I go downstairs wiff Daddy?" "Sure" I said. He hopped up and scampered out of the room. He quickly came back, touched my cheek and said "I still love you, you know." He was so gentle when he told me that I knew he didn't want me to think he didn't love me. He just wanted to go play.
We were at dinner the other night and Wyatt kept making himself burp and then say "Paw-gize". I finally started counting him for it. He earned himself a time out and howled and cried when I carried him upstairs because he refused to head up on his own. I set him down in his room and turned to leave when he made a loud "UH!" I continued out of the room and he made a louder "UH!" I started heading down the stairs and he made another very loud "UH!" followed by "I am frowing fits! UUHH!"
Wy is now obsessed with crawling up on the kitchen counters. I caught him up there messing with the pens the other morning, giggling hysterically.
And here they are enjoying an ice cream treat. Wy insisted that his face was "NOT DIRTY!" I had to take a picture to prove otherwise. (One half second after I took this picture, Wy took a swipe at Jack's ice cream with his tongue. Jack was pretty fast though and Wy only managed to lick air!)
I never imagined
I never imagined I would ever say the following:
1. I am not the maid.
2. His/her behavior does NOT justify yours!
3. This is not a democracy. What gave you the idea that you would get a vote?
4. Stop touching each other!
5. Oh yes I am the boss of you!
6. I love you too, now go to time out.
7. Listen here, Sassy Pants.
8. We are going to pray the Hail Mary. Then we will discuss what happened.
9. Both of you. Time out. Together. HOLD HANDS.
I never imagined I would be able to:
1. Touch someone on the forehead and say with absolute certainty that they did or did not have a fever. I thought that was some freakish thing only my mom knew how to do...
2. Remember that a normal temp is 98.6.
And I never imagined I would become emotional because:
1. My little person finally outgrew a pair of socks with dump trucks on them...
2. My children are potty trained which means I am no longer buying diapers which means I no longer have babies...
1. I am not the maid.
2. His/her behavior does NOT justify yours!
3. This is not a democracy. What gave you the idea that you would get a vote?
4. Stop touching each other!
5. Oh yes I am the boss of you!
6. I love you too, now go to time out.
7. Listen here, Sassy Pants.
8. We are going to pray the Hail Mary. Then we will discuss what happened.
9. Both of you. Time out. Together. HOLD HANDS.
I never imagined I would be able to:
1. Touch someone on the forehead and say with absolute certainty that they did or did not have a fever. I thought that was some freakish thing only my mom knew how to do...
2. Remember that a normal temp is 98.6.
And I never imagined I would become emotional because:
1. My little person finally outgrew a pair of socks with dump trucks on them...
2. My children are potty trained which means I am no longer buying diapers which means I no longer have babies...
Christmas Visits 2010
We had loads of wonderful visits with family and friends this Christmas. Sue and Steve and their young friend John spent a few days with us. We had some good food and conversation (You can't ask for better than that!) and John, Jack and Steve played Kerplunk! (a game with sticks and marbles - something about whoever gets the most marbles loses and Jack changed it around so that whoever had the most marbles was the winner. I'm sure you can take a wild guess about who kept ending up with the most marbles.)
Our Alabama branch of the family came in for a few days after Christmas. The kids had a great time catching up with Jude. (He was very much into playing football.) Lili, Marshall, John and I took a turn around Union Station and had a few drinks at Pierponts on New Year's Eve - we had a really nice time. My friend Laura stopped in for a visit and brought her beau. The boys were quite taken with both of them. We had lunch and every now and then the boys would pop in with a contribution to the conversation like "Well, one time when I was coloring..." and "Excuse me, I just made a fart!" About an hour into our visit, Jack couldn't stand it anymore and invited our guests downstairs to look at all the trains. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Jack stopped, held his arms out to what we were about to see and in a very grown up voice said "Vis is a hot mess, ok?" as if to prepare us for the monsterous mess we were about to see.
I didn't get many pictures this time around (I kept running off to rehearsal) but if you would like to check em out - you can go to http://owenlandparkproductions.shutterfly.com/ and look at our Christmas Visits album.
Love, blessings and a safe New Year!
Our Alabama branch of the family came in for a few days after Christmas. The kids had a great time catching up with Jude. (He was very much into playing football.) Lili, Marshall, John and I took a turn around Union Station and had a few drinks at Pierponts on New Year's Eve - we had a really nice time. My friend Laura stopped in for a visit and brought her beau. The boys were quite taken with both of them. We had lunch and every now and then the boys would pop in with a contribution to the conversation like "Well, one time when I was coloring..." and "Excuse me, I just made a fart!" About an hour into our visit, Jack couldn't stand it anymore and invited our guests downstairs to look at all the trains. When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Jack stopped, held his arms out to what we were about to see and in a very grown up voice said "Vis is a hot mess, ok?" as if to prepare us for the monsterous mess we were about to see.
I didn't get many pictures this time around (I kept running off to rehearsal) but if you would like to check em out - you can go to http://owenlandparkproductions.shutterfly.com/ and look at our Christmas Visits album.
Love, blessings and a safe New Year!
Ice Skating
Melanie and Mark brought Noah down on New Year's Eve to take Jack and Wyatt ice skating at Crown Center. Here are the boys read to go!
And now we CLING to the outer wall of the rink!
And we are still clinging!
10 minutes of ice skating was the highlight of the Holidays!
Melanie told me that by the time she and Mark got every one's shoes on and ready to go that a voice came over the intercom notifying everyone that there were only 10 minutes of skate time left. Can you imagine getting 3 little ones into skates and on the ice for the first time only to be told you only have 10 minutes? Well, the folks let Mel and Mark's group skate for free and the bonus is that Mark said anything longer than 10 minutes would have been a nightmare for everyone involved.
On the way home the gang stopped at ye olde gas station for a cup o hot chocolate. Ice skating and hot chocolate; You can't beat that!
And now we CLING to the outer wall of the rink!
And we are still clinging!
10 minutes of ice skating was the highlight of the Holidays!
Melanie told me that by the time she and Mark got every one's shoes on and ready to go that a voice came over the intercom notifying everyone that there were only 10 minutes of skate time left. Can you imagine getting 3 little ones into skates and on the ice for the first time only to be told you only have 10 minutes? Well, the folks let Mel and Mark's group skate for free and the bonus is that Mark said anything longer than 10 minutes would have been a nightmare for everyone involved.
On the way home the gang stopped at ye olde gas station for a cup o hot chocolate. Ice skating and hot chocolate; You can't beat that!
